Demand for communication between onboard information equipment and an in-vehicle wireless communication apparatus by incorporating a wireless communication function in the onboard information equipment has been growing. For example, it is conceivable to hear and watch music data and video data in the onboard information equipment such as a car navigation system (car navigation) on a wireless communication apparatus on a rear seat. It is further conceivable to operate a car navigation or to listen to a digital broadcast received by the onboard information equipment on the wireless communication apparatus.
As for connection between such onboard information equipment and the in-vehicle wireless communication apparatus, it is considered to use a wireless LAN. The term “wireless LAN” refers to a technique that utilizes IEEE802.11b/g/n or the like which is created by international standardization activity, and is used in personal computers and game platforms as well.
Communication using a wireless LAN is widely used: wireless LAN routers are installed in offices and homes and are used for connecting to personal computers. In addition, public wireless LAN spots have been increasing recently as places that enable using a wireless LAN out of doors.
However, if another wireless LAN network exists in the surroundings, there are some cases where communication conditions deteriorate and sufficient usable band cannot be reserved (see FIG. 2(a)).
In addition, when the volume of media data like music and video data to be transmitted increases such as when an increasing number of wireless communication apparatuses are connected, there are some cases where sufficient bands required are not reserved for the individual data (see FIG. 2(b)).
Accordingly, it becomes necessary to control band allocation for carrying out the individual media transmission.
Up to the present, techniques for controlling bands in the transmission of the media data have been proposed as to the onboard information equipment. For example, a Patent Document 1 discloses a method of transmitting and using a plurality of pieces of multimedia information safely in a vehicle within a limited frequency band in an in-vehicle multimedia information provider apparatus. In the Patent Document 1, a band necessary for the transmission is assigned successively according to a request, and if there is a band that terminates its use, the allocation of the bands currently in use is altered in such a manner that the vacant bands are not divided. In addition, an order of priority of the transmission information is determined in advance so that when the data with a priority like a telephone conversation occurs, the band allocation to all the transmission data is relinquished once to allocate a band to the high priority data.